Kuwait Passes Expat Quota Bill: How Will It Affect Indians?

Kuwait – a nation that has 3 million expats in its 4.3 million population – recently passed the ‘Expat Quota Bill’, limiting the population of foreign workers in the country while also adding to its mixed history with India.

Crux of the Matter

What’s In The Bill? Kuwait recently accepted the draft Expat Quota bill, which now awaits parliamentary approval. The bill aims to reduce the Expat (foreign) workers’ population in the country from 70% to 30% of the total. The bill also specifies the limit on the number of migrants from several countries, differing according to several factors.

Kuwait Population Distribution Out of its total population of 4.3 million, only 1.3 million people belong to the country. 3 million of its population is composed of Expats. The Expat bill was motivated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the decline in oil prices, which is creating economic difficulties for the Kuwaiti government. According to reports, most of the Covid-19 cases in Kuwait were accounted for by foreign workers.

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Indians make the largest Expat community in Kuwait

History Of India-Kuwait

1. Currently, ~28,000 Indians are present in major occupations in Kuwait government like doctors, engineers, scientists, etc.

2. Kuwait is declared as an Islamic state. However, it allows freedom of religion provided it avoids interfering with Islamic traditions.

3. In the Kuwait-Iraq war, India initially supported the US, which was aiding Kuwait by attacking Iraq. However, India later changed its stance.

4. In 1990 during the Kuwait-Iraq war, Air India evacuated more than 170,000 Indians stranded in Kuwait, making it the largest civilian evacuation in history.

5. In 1994, a bill prohibiting the entry of Indians in Kuwait, reportedly due to its stance in the Kuwait-Iraq war, was rejected by the Kuwaiti government.

6. Consequently, the relationships between India and Kuwait strengthened over a period of time.

Curiopedia

1. The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“native country, fatherland”). An older usage of the word expatriate was to refer to an exile.

2. There are 17 Indian schools in Kuwait affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Indians constitute the largest expatriate community in Kuwait.

3. During the reign of Mubarak Al-Sabah, Kuwait was dubbed the “Marseilles of the Gulf” because its economic vitality attracted a large variety of people. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Kuwait had a well-established elite: wealthy trading families who were linked by marriage and shared economic interests.

Curated Coverage

1. The Times Of India – Kuwait expat quota bill: All you need to know

2. Scroll – The Berlin airlift was remarkable, but the largest civilian evacuation in history is by India

3. India Today – Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait sets off massive exodus of Indian workers, closes major foreign exchange source for India

4. The Indian Express – Over 8 lakh Indians may be forced to leave as Kuwait approves expat quota bill

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